BBC's talks to renew Great British Bake Off deal stall as rivals circle

The BBC faces the prospect of losing The Great British Bake Off to one of its commercial rivals, after talks to renew the corporation’s contract to air the show stalled.

The seventh series of the wildly popular baking programme, which is due to air on BBC One in the autumn, will mark the conclusion of a three-year deal between the BBC and Love Productions, the company that makes the show.

Industry sources said yesterday that talks between the BBC and Love have reached an impasse, with the corporation yet to agree to the production company’s demand for a vastly increased fee for making further series of the show.

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Commercial rivals, including ITV, Channel 4, and Sky, which owns 70 per cent of Love, have let it be known that they would be keen to acquire Bake Off, should the BBC fail to seal a deal.

However, the BBC's current contract is understood to contain a one year cooling-off clause, which would prevent a rival from airing the show before 2018.

The current, three-year deal was signed before the 2014 series, when Bake Off made the leap from BBC Two to BBC One, where it has steadily grown its audience.

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Broadcast magazine, the trade publication that first reported the current stand-off, said that Love had demanded that the corporation reclassify the show, taking it out of its budget for factual programming, and instead paying for it via its entertainment tariffs.

When Bake Off was first aired on BBC Two, in 2010, it was initially commissioned by the BBC’s documentary department. While the BBC will not reveal how much it currently pays for the programme, tariffs published on the corporation’s website show that it pays between £40,000 and £200,000 an hour for factual programmes with “high onscreen value”, whereas it is willing to hand out up to £300,000 an hour for its best performing entertainment shows.

She said: “We have a great relationship and we will be doing more Bake Offs. I’m sure [rivals] would love Bake Off.

“I don’t take anything for granted, but of course I think Bake Off is a big part of BBC One and I think they like to be on BBC One. I really hope that it will continue to thrive on BBC One. It is everything that BBC One should be about.”